Hi, Rick here. Sorry for popping up on a Friday, but there are two things that I forgot to say in episode 128 of the Photography Explained podcast.

I will be quick I promise. Here are those two things.

Sorry – here is the episode if you want to listen

And here is the script for this episode (yes I do write this stuff!)

I know, this is a bit unusual – let me explain.

Firstly, what made me change.

How did I go from taking forever editing photos to being a Lightroom ninja?

Well, I was writing an email to my email subscribers – if you want to know more check out my website rickmcevoyphotography.com – I was writing about this episode of my podcast and wrote this without really thinking about it.

“See I used to spend forever editing photos. Well not forever obviously, but sometimes it felt like it. I used to dread editing photos, as I didn’t know what the endpoint actually was. There was always more that could be done.

And my photos got worse for this. I overdid things, making my photos worse. And that made me more unhappy and frustrated. And the bit that I didn’t mention in the podcast was this.

It was when I had to get photos from a shoot to a client super quick that things changed. Oh no, why did I not mention this in the podcast episode?

This was my turning point. I did a shoot on a massive construction site in Portsmouth for an agency who were working for Rockwool. The shoot was at 2 pm one afternoon, and they needed the edited images at 8 am the next morning.

I got home, explained the situation to my lovely wife, and got to work. 2 hours later the photos were issued. 2 hours from start to finish.

That was my lightbulb moment. I had got this all wrong. The photos were just fine, and done in half the time that I would have taken if I had the time.”

So that was the first thing, and there was one other thing that I thought as soon as I had finished the edit.

Did I actually finish off the “How Do I Know When I Have Finished Editing A Photo?” question? I told you something that you can do. But there is a little bit more.

If you have tried the 1 minute, 2 minute, 5 minutes and take as long as you want thing, which I hope you have, what are you actually looking for?

You are looking for this. You are looking to see if you are happy with the photo that you edited in 1 minute. Or 2. Or 5. It is not the number that matters.

It is the fact that you are thinking about this and seeing that there is only so much you can do with a photo and that if you can edit a photo in 1, 2, or 5 minutes, that you are happy with, then great.

I know that the time spent will depend on your experience not only in editing, but also your experience in photography, but hopefully, this will help you get from where I was – the dread of editing photos as they take forever.

Back to the question – “How Do I Know When I Have Finished Editing A Photo”. Look at the photo that you spent unlimited time on. And compare that to the one done in less than 5 minutes.

Really look at them. Compare then. Which do you prefer? Which did you enjoy editing? Did you hate the time pressure, or did the time pressure help you to create a better photo?

Do the same with the other photos. But you need to give yourself time, really study the photos, and have a good old think about this.

It is all down to you, what you want to get out of your photography, and what you enjoy doing. If your thing is playing around editing photos all day long then great. But there might come a time when you need to get some photos done quickly, which is what happened to me.

There are no right or wrong answers to this – I just want you to be aware that you do not have to spend forever editing a photo.

And don’t forget – you don’t have to edit every photo.

OK – I am done, again. Thanks for letting me complete this episode, and hopefully you will join me for episode 129, How I Save Time Editing Photos – 11 Top Tips Just For You. Yep, this is a good one. Well, I would say that wouldn’t I…..

I’ve been Rick McEvoy,

Take care, stay safe

Cheers from me Rick

OK – that was the podcast episode.

Want to know more?

Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.

And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.

Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.

Let me send you stuff

I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.

And finally a little bit about me

Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.

Thank you

Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).

Cheers from me Rick